Yoshitoshi 芳年: Mount Otawa Moon: Bright God Tamura 音羽山月　田村明神

Artist: Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892) 芳年Title: Mount Otawa Moon: Bright God Tamura 音羽山月　田村明神 Series: One Hundred Aspects of the Moon 月百姿  Date: 1886 Sakanoe no Tamuramaro was a famous general of the 8th century Nara period; after death he was deified as the Shinto god Tamura Myôjin, “Bright God Tamura”. He later had a role in founding the large and important Kiyomizudera temple on Mount Otawa. We can see the temple and its famous wooden pavilion in the background, cherry trees blooming as a full moon rises. Yoshitoshi has captured elements from the Noh play  “Tamura” and spun the design into something uniquely his. In the play there is a youth who appears to a monk who visits the temple in spring; the youth sweeps away fallen cherry blossoms with a broom and then disappears; this is considered a manifestation of Tamura’s ghost. Later in the play Tamura’s ghost appears in the form of a general. Here the character displays a combination of elements of the two manifestations of the ghos